FEATURE:
Groovelines
Coldplay - Yellow
__________
ONE of the most important…
IN THIS PHOTO: Coldplay in 2000/PHOTO CREDIT: Benedict Johnson/Redferns
albums of the early-2000s turns twenty-five on 10th July. Released in the year 2000, it is the debut album of Coldplay. Parachutes reached number one in the U.K. Although some critics gave it a mixed review, the majority were very positive. The album boasts incredible tracks like Shiver, Trouble and Don’t Panic. Perhaps the biggest and most celebrated song from the album is Yellow. It is the one song many associate with Coldplay. The reason I am spotlighting it is because it turns twenty-five on 26th June. I wanted to go further into the song for this Groovelines. Even if I am not a big Coldplay fan, I recognise the brilliance of this track. One that I remember coming out in 2000 and being struck instantly. Yellow won Best Single at the 2001 NME. It was nominated at the 2002 GRAMMYs for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. That sense of brightness, hope and devotion. The band’s lead, Chris Martin, said that was very typical of Coldplay and their ethos/mood. Many critics describe the track as Post-Britpop or Alternative Rock. It is about unrequited love, I guess. Yellow is perhaps hopelessly romantic…though not in a bad way. There are a few features about Yellow that I want to bring in now. I am going to start out with this feature that gives a little bit of background into the recording of Yellow:
“Yellow” was recorded in Rockfield studio in Wales off of the Parlophone label, which has signed bands such as Radiohead, Gorillaz, and The Chemical Brothers. The origin of the track is the stuff of movies, beginning with the band taking a studio break after recording their first single for Parachutes, “Shiver.” While outside, co-prodcer Ken Nelson noticed how beautiful the lights were, and told the band to “look at the stars.” Yeah, it’s corny.
From there, Martin developed a melody, which eventually turned into the hook. At first, the group was pessimistic about the loose chord progression, which Martin described as a poor impersonation of a Neil Young inflection. Eventually, the track turned into something more palatable, especially after guitarist Johnny Buckland created the riff for the first portion of the song,
Lyrically, Martin found inspiration from his friend Stephanie, who happened to be in the studio during the night of the recording. According to the lead singer, she possessed a “yellow glow” in the night.
I immediately attached to “Yellow” because of its thoughtful and dreamy aesthetic. The song starts off as a blank canvas with its acoustic arrangements and restrained vocals before eventually painting a picture of passionate love. The track forces listeners to grab hold of that one thing in life that’s not worth letting go. Martin and company keep this overwhelming infatuation open for perspective, thus providing people with the luxury of finding their own ways to emotionally attach to this euphoric experience.
Coldplay’s first successful hit brought my dad and I together and gave us something to talk about musically, despite our different tastes. Love tends to do that, even in the worst of times. The band continued to explore this universal theme after their initial success, and still do to this day.
Even while trading old-fashioned guitars for synthesized pop, Coldplay still stays genuine. To me, it’s hard not to like them, especially considering their impact on the current state of alternative music, which is filled with bands like OneRepublic and Imagine Dragons trying to copy their happy-go-lucky style. Coldplay has still found cult success, even through mixed reviews from big-name music sites (namely Pitchfork), all because of “Yellow”.
I am interested in this feature from American Songwriter from 2023. It is simple, random and amazing how the song came together. As American Songwriter say, Chris Martin “was messing around on the guitar with a bunch of folk guitar chords, trying to channel Neil Young and mumbling the word “stars.” He looked across the room and saw a copy of a phone number directory, the Yellow Pages. The rest is history”:
“The first line of the song is a sentence their producer Ken Nelson uttered while the band was taking a break outside the studio. Since they were in the countryside, the night sky wasn’t polluted with city lights. The stars were clearly visible and Nelson told the band: “Look at the stars.”
The song’s lyrics describe all the things—some more ridiculous than others—a person will do to express their love and devotion for someone: write a song, swim and jump across obstacles, draw a line, and even sacrifice their life.
Your skin
Oh yeah, your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
You know, you know I love you so
You know I love you so
I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh what a thing to do
‘Cause you were all yellow
I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all yellow
The Recording
“Yellow” was a labor-intensive song. “It was really difficult to record,” Will Champion, the band’s drummer, said in an interview with MTV. The musicians had tried out at least five different tempos and had a hard time choosing a final version, Champion recalls. “Sometimes it sounded too rushed, and sometimes it sounded as if it was dragging.”
The plan was to record most of the album Parachutes analog. As the band and producer Ken Nelson forged ahead, they just “couldn’t quite get” the song “Yellow” right, Nelson explained in an interview with Sound on Sound. “We tried it a few different ways, and a few different recordings of it, and we were never really happy. We ended up using Pro Tools.”
A music video worth covering
Initially, the music video for “Yellow” was supposed to show the band on the beach in a carefree summer setting. On the day of the shoot, rain was pouring down in true British fashion and Chris Martin was the only band member who ended up in the video. He is lip-syncing while making his way along the shoreline in a rain jacket. He sang along to a sped-up version of the song so that the final product could be slowed down for a slow-motion effect.
In 2022, the Canadian band Tegan and Sara released a music video that pays homage to Coldplay’s original. The twins filmed a slow-motion video on an empty beach wearing rain gear. Their song “Yellow” is an original but they couldn’t release a song with the same title without passing up the opportunity to give a nod to Coldplay’s version.
“Yellow” was only the beginning
There are many memorable performances of “Yellow.” Among them is the band’s performance at Steve Jobs’ memorial in 2011. Before the band starts playing, Chris Martin shares a memory with the attendees: In 2001, Coldplay played “Yellow” for Apple’s CEO, who told the band that he didn’t like the song at all. “He said, we’d never make it,” Martin tells the crowd gathered in front of the stage. He then smiles while playing the first chords on his acoustic guitar”.
This feature is really interesting, as it breaks down lines and parts of Yellow and dissects them. Finds meaning behind them. Even if Chris Martin has not really given too much away regarding the meaning behind one of Coldplay’s biggest songs, each listener has their own interpretation and take:
“Look at the stars. Look how they shine for you. And everything you do. Yeah, they were all yellow.” Such is the beginnings of Yellow, arguably Coldplay’s most iconic song.
When Chris Martin was questioned by a journalist on the meaning behind this song — he simply replied (with a smirk) — “I don’t know”. After listening to this song for over 15 years, it is indeed still difficult to truly grasp what this song is really about.
It may be a danger to overanalyze art — whether it be a piece of music, a block of writing, or a set of paintings. Perceiving art from the lense of the intellect may somehow ruin the emotional experience of it. Overinterpretation and pattern seeking may possibly nullify the magic of a masterful song.
Having said all this — screw it. Let us take that risk.
The first 10 seconds of the song starts off with a clean and crisp guitar riff; initially starting with what sounds like an acoustic guitar, then shortly joined by an electric one at around the 6th second.
At around the 11th second, the song explodes to what I can only describe as a glorious — melodious — transcendental — crescendo. This part of the song (we will call it ‘melodious crescendo’ from now on) is repeated multiple times throughout the piece.
It happens at the beginning (11th second), and also two more times (1:50 and 3:13): immediately after the singer professes his love for the person he is referring to (“You know I love you so” and “For you I’d bleed myself dry”). Have a listen to those three parts.
These three points represent the emotional peaks of the song. The profession of love is appropriately followed by the immediate explosion of melodious crescendo, which perfectly reflects the emotional heights of the song.
Throughout the song, the singer repeatedly mentions his acts of service to the person he is referring to. What is peculiar about these acts of services is that they are simple, arbitrary, trivial”.
I am going to end with a 2023 feature from Medium. It is a critique and psychological approach to Yellow. I didn’t think too much of the meaning behind the lyrics back in 2000. Now, as the track has inspired so many other songwriters, I wanted to revisit it. One of those classics that is hard to fault. If you have not heard the song lately then go and check it out:
“Listening to ‘Yellow’ it is easy to tell that the song is about a deep, passionate love but the object of these affections isn’t specified, rather the band chose to leave it open for anyone that listens to interpret the message of the song as they see fit.
The lead singer himself agreed that it was written with no one particular in mind, but the song and its title to him and the band symbolizes “brightness and hope and devotion”. But what is it about a minimalistic, sweet song that would skyrocket a relatively unknown band to global attention so suddenly? To discover this, it is so important to know what the lyrics of this song, its melody, and its intent mean to millions of people around the world but this is an impossible task.
A beautiful expression of this is seen in a letter to Coldplay written by the director of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Jon M. Chu, where he said:
“I know it’s a bit strange, but my whole life I’ve had a complicated relationship with the color yellow. From being called the word in a derogatory way throughout grade school, to watching movies where they called cowardly people yellow, it’s always had a negative connotation in my life. That is, until I heard your song. For the first time in my life, it described the color in the most beautiful, magical ways I had ever heard: the color of the stars, her skin, her love. It was an incredible image of attraction and aspiration that it made me rethink my own self image. It immediately became an anthem for me and my friends and gave us a new sense of pride we never felt before… (even though it probably wasn’t ever your intention). We could reclaim the color for ourselves and it has stuck with me for the majority of my life.”
For Chu, the word ‘yellow’ went from one of pain and disgust as he had previously associated it to be, into a word that meant beauty, grace, and love. It’s about self love, taking what was used to discriminate against him to celebrate who he is.
And so the lyrics go like this:
Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow
I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called “Yellow”
These verses describe the way the author perceives his subject of interest. To this author, the reason the stars shine is for the person he loves — the stars emit a pale glow that lights up the night sky, thus the author believes that this person is so precious that he/she is the reason why the stars (which are far away in the cosmos) come out at night to shine.
And so, the author continues by translating his adoration for the subject by defining the things this subject does as yellow which allows the listener to visualize the sort of person the subject is.
The colour yellow is often associated with warmth, happiness, positivity, youthfulness, and hope — it is a colour that signifies something that is alive in the sense that it is throbbing with life. The concept of living happily or being a person that lives a warm, happy existence is a story the colour tells. The author is so greatly inspired by his subject that he must do something about it, and this is seen in the line ‘I came along, I wrote a song for you’.
And what is the aim of the song the author has written? It is a song for the subject and to tell of all the things this person does — to the author, the impact the person has on the world and in the author’s life.
Although the author made it clear that the song was about his person, the lyrics of almost every line come from a subjective view of how the author views the person, what he/she means to the author, and also the lengths the author would go for him/her.
It is not a representation of the individual based on how he/she views their selves, or how the world views them or even who they truly are when no one else is there. The descriptions tell of only one point of view; the author’s.
And so to tell the subject and the rest of the world of the depth of what is felt by the author towards this person, and to paint the picture of how the author sees them, the lyrics go:
your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones
turn into something beautiful
and you know, you know I love you so
You know I love you so
To the author, this individual is beautiful from their skin to their bones. The line ‘your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones, turn into something beautiful’ is interesting because it goes beyond a superficial view of what the beauty of this person is.
It holds a connotation of beauty even in death by stating how the skin and bones of the subject turn into something beautiful — perhaps, returning to dust and coming back as nature and life. A beauty that surpasses death. But just to re-emphasise his love, in case it were not already clear, the author sings ‘You know I love you so’
One must agree that the author does indeed love the subject, as the next lines support the statement of the depth of this love. The author takes note of the belief that actions speak louder than words, and so to prove to the subject of just how much he loves them, the author sings:
I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh, what a thing to do
‘Cause you were all yellow
and you know, for you, I’d bleed myself dry
For you, I’d bleed myself dry
For this person that is ‘yellow’- light, hope, warmth, happiness in the author’s life, he swam across and bled himself dry. For this person, the author is willing to go unquestionable miles up to the extent of sacrificing himself for their sake.
What more is there to say? What more could one utter that could express just how deeply they are loved by an individual? But the author doesn’t stop there. It all sounds so whimsical — the idea that one could be loved so deeply, maybe it even sounds exaggerated to the subject, and so the author says:
It’s true
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine
Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things that you do
And here, he ends his message and his melody.
From the beginning, the song was meant for the subject of the author’s affection. It was never about anything other than this person, and the things that this person does. Along the line, the author took the song in a different direction by telling of the things he would do for the one he loves.
But although the author decided to take this angle, his objective of telling the things that the person stays true. A person’s actions go beyond the individual to affect the lives of those around them. In the case of the subject, the state of this person as ‘yellow’ influences the author to do seemingly crazy things just for their love.
In a way, this is a cause and effect relationship — the individual is the cause where his actions, personality, and being led to the effect of the author’s love, adoration, and devotion to them, even the effect of the stars shining for this one person.
‘Yellow’ is a song meant for just one person; the subject. Throughout the song, the author stays true to singing a love song for the one he loves.
In doing this, he introduces anyone listening (including the subject) to the character, personality, or being of the one he loves through his eyes, and to the way they make him feel”.
I will finish up here. Going deep into Yellow, it has been great learning more about one of the most successful songs of its era. Released in the first year of the twenty-first century, it was many people’s introduction to Coldplay. It was for me. A stirring and impassioned song, it is no wonder it has endured to this day and still sounds so emotional. It is a track that, once heard, gets straight…
INTO the heart.